Washington

[jakeroot]

Video on the completion of 167. Shows a few new visualisations for the interchanges, and how local creeks will be moved.

https://youtu.be/5CVS7-thPfg

[Henry]

Funny how I included the completion of the WA 167 freeway as a missed opportunity for Seattle recently. I'll be glad to see it come to fruition.

[jakeroot]

Funny how I included the completion of the WA 167 freeway as a missed opportunity for Seattle recently. I'll be glad to see it come to fruition.

It's well on its way. The 2-year 70th Ave bridge replacement project begins this summer. It will demolish the old bridge, currently in the way of the new freeway, and also rebuilds some local roads. The second phase (509 Spur) starts construction in two years. The 167 construction won't begin until the 509 section is nearing completion, in summer 2025.

It's possible that construction phasing could be moved up with $265M in accelerated funding, provided last month by the state legislature.

[jakeroot]

New roundabout coming to SR-20 @ Banta Road, the primary northern access point to NAS Whidbey. Construction starts next Wednesday...should be complete by fall:

http://wsdot.wa.gov/news/2019/05/22/roundabout-coming-landing-oak-harbor

This will be the fifth roundabout on SR-20, including the two in Port Townsend and two new ones at Sharpes and Howards Corners.

[ErmineNotyours]

Here's a better photo of the last known I-5 button copy sign in Washington, southbound near Marysville.

To get this photo, I didn't want to pull over and merge back in to traffic, and pedestrians are not allowed, so I rode my bike on the freeway shoulder several hundred feet from the previous entrance.  Maybe I was considered a pedestrian for the moments I stopped my bike and stood on my feet.  The State Patrol never came by.

[jakeroot]

Great photo! Thanks for running out there and grabbing it.

Before this sign, the last known signs were on I-5 in Tacoma, correct? (Portland Ave).

[Kacie Jane]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wugi5snU2RJN4JFK8

Does this one count (and still exist)? I believe those were the three: Portland Ave. NB (now gone), Exit 199 SB, and the Everett weigh station SB.

[jakeroot]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wugi5snU2RJN4JFK8

Does this one count (and still exist)? I believe those were the three: Portland Ave. NB (now gone), Exit 199 SB, and the Everett weigh station SB.

I would think so. It's not what most would consider a true "guide sign", but it's still button copy, and that's cool.

I had completely forgotten about that weigh station sign. I have seen it before (many times), but it didn't register in my mind as being unique as I was so used to seeing that Portland Ave sign in Tacoma, day-in and day-out for years and years.

[thefraze_1020]

Here's a better photo of the last known I-5 button copy sign in Washington, southbound near Marysville.

To get this photo, I didn't want to pull over and merge back in to traffic, and pedestrians are not allowed, so I rode my bike on the freeway shoulder several hundred feet from the previous entrance.  Maybe I was considered a pedestrian for the moments I stopped my bike and stood on my feet.  The State Patrol never came by.

You are awesome! Thanks for getting that pic. You didn't happen to look at the back of the sign did you? If so, was there any sort of fabrication sticker on the back?

[thefraze_1020]

Although not on the mainline of I-5, there is this sign:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2394963,-122.4117622,3a,34.2y,234.37h,87.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7GcQS1kDLIZCmWKYsB-i8g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&authuser=0

It's at the corner of Portland Ave E and E 27th St, at the on-ramp to I-5 SB, across the street from the La Quinta. It has been moved around multiple times for the construction project there. I emailed the contractor last summer to ask what would happen to the sign once the project wrapped up. He referred me to WSDOT. So I emailed them to ask the same question. They said the sign would be re-hung in a permanent location once the project was complete. Ya...sure...re-hung in a scrap yard maybe.

[jakeroot]

You are awesome! Thanks for getting that pic. You didn't happen to look at the back of the sign did you? If so, was there any sort of fabrication sticker on the back?

Judging by the back of the sign, it's old enough that the exit tab came later. Or maybe that's just how it was built.

Although not on the mainline of I-5, there is this sign:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2394963,-122.4117622,3a,34.2y,234.37h,87.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7GcQS1kDLIZCmWKYsB-i8g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&authuser=0

It's at the corner of Portland Ave E and E 27th St, at the on-ramp to I-5 SB, across the street from the La Quinta. It has been moved around multiple times for the construction project there. I emailed the contractor last summer to ask what would happen to the sign once the project wrapped up. He referred me to WSDOT. So I emailed them to ask the same question. They said the sign would be re-hung in a permanent location once the project was complete. Ya...sure...re-hung in a scrap yard maybe.

I drive past that sign on a near-regular basis. I am stunned that it's still standing, given its age and the enveloping construction. I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it up. It's lasted this long already!

[Hurricane Rex]

Said sign is a part of history now. It'll be up to the last possible moment like the Columbia street US 99 sign

SM-J737T

[ErmineNotyours]

You are awesome! Thanks for getting that pic. You didn't happen to look at the back of the sign did you? If so, was there any sort of fabrication sticker on the back?

No sticker, just the number 62 on the lower section, and a much cleaner 95 on the exit tab.  It's possible those were the years of fabrication, though I didn't think they were still making button copy in Washington in 1995.

[ErmineNotyours]

There have been enough questions about the Marysville button copy sign sign, so here is the back, with the exit tab obviously added later.

[ErmineNotyours]

Now that I've been clued in to look for a separately attached exit tab, I saw the back of this sign last night and checked it again just now because the exit tab was added on.  Yes, it is yet another I-5 button copy sign, this one northbound approaching Bellingham.  This one would be a tad harder to get to by bicycle, so I'll let someone else have the chance for glory.

[Kacie Jane]

That's not button copy.

[jakeroot]

If this side view is any indication, it certainly appears to be a standard retro-reflective guide sign: https://goo.gl/maps/Csy4bpeBhzPDmjQe8

[jakeroot]

I made this poster for one of my classes this quarter at UW-T. It's about some of the abandoned or unbuilt highways in Tacoma.

Just for the record, I've made this poster for a group of people who don't know a damn thing about roads. Any inaccuracies will go unnoticed. I do have sources for the information as well.

I did all the visuals myself.

(image scaled way down...click for full resolution)

[ErmineNotyours]

It looks like the proposed alignment of the SR 7 freeway would have diverged from the railroad soon after the built section, according to this mid-1970s Gousha map:



Also, the same map shows the SR 7 / SR 512 cloverleaf as a done deal:



This 1961 map shows the future as-built SR 16 interchange off I-5, before I-5 was shown being built closer to Downtown Tacoma.  Perhaps the state was planning this as a local exit in addition to the more northerly routing to the Narrows Bridge.

[jakeroot]

Sweet finds! Where did you acquire those maps? I've been looking for some detailed maps of where exactly the Highway 7 was supposed to go (close up with interchange info), but I don't know if this was ever created. Its entirely possible that they never planned the freeway south of S 46th St, except for that interchange at 512.

For the record, my squiggly line for my Hwy 7 routing was entirely fictional. I know it was supposed to go to the Roy Y, but I don't know the exact route it was to use, to get there.

[sparker]

^^^^^^^^
If possible, would someone with access to the material scanned above please post a more complete map of the Tacoma area in the same timeframe, indicating how WA 16 as well as other state routes were aligned in the downtown Tacoma area.  Thanks in advance for any action in this regard! 

[Bruce]

The WSDOT Digital Library has some of the annual highway maps from the 1960s and 1970s. https://cdm16977.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16977coll18/search

[ErmineNotyours]

I got the mid-70s map new at a gas station.  Just walked or biked there and bought it from a vending machine.  They weren't free any more, but at least they were in color again.  I got several 1961 maps from an antique store in Pullman, Washington when I was going to WSU.

Here's the routing 16 used to take, when it was called 14.  Before I knew much about Tacoma, I wondered why it didn't take a more direct route, and it was because of the steep hill west of downtown.

[Kacie Jane]

This 1961 map shows the future as-built SR 16 interchange off I-5, before I-5 was shown being built closer to Downtown Tacoma.  Perhaps the state was planning this as a local exit in addition to the more northerly routing to the Narrows Bridge.

I'm doubtful that current SR 16 and the 12th/15th freeway were ever proposed at the same time. (Don't think I've ever seen them on the same map.) Seems more likely to me that the one built was a replacement for the older proposal after it was deemed too expensive.

(Shame though. A direct connection from the Narrows to downtown might have taken some of the congestion off I-5 through Tacoma.)

[jakeroot]

I was watching this video on YouTube showing old footage of the Waterfront Streetcar, when I noticed one of the old bridges that used to cross over Alaskan Way. This bridge below, which connected to Lenora Street, was used to transport goods over what I'm guessing was a very busy Alaskan Way, back when it was built.

There's plenty of photos of these old bridges online, but I thought this screen-cap was cool because it showed the bridge free-standing, after the pier it was connected to was demolished in the 1980s, but before it was demolished to make way for the stairclimb that exists there now. Here's a link to Historic Aerials (1980), where you can see the old pier it connected to. Jump forward to 1990, and you can see the bridge standing there without any western connection. Jump again to 1998, and you can see that it's gone (replaced by the existing stairclimb).